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Recipe: Zebulon Post-WWI Mild
“This would be a silly choice for a two-ounce pour in a flight,” says Mike Karnowski, cofounder and brewer at Zebulon Artisan Ales. “This is a beer to be consumed in large amounts. ... The ingredients were simple: mild ale malt, some dark invert sugar syrup for flavor, and just enough hops to balance it all out.”
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“Twenty years earlier, this would’ve been twice as strong, but World War I devastated British beer,” says Mike Karnowski, cofounder and brewer at Zebulon Artisan Ales. “Government regulations, taxes, and ingredient shortages had all taken their toll. Mild took much of the blow and ended up as, basically, ‘the cheapest beer on tap.’”
He adds: “This would be a silly choice for a two-ounce pour in a flight. This is a beer to be consumed in large amounts. It would be typical to have five to six pints over the course of an evening, playing darts or cards with friends at the pub.
“No one was overthinking mild ale—it was basically a cheap amber ale with some caramel notes and a touch of hops. The ingredients were simple: mild ale malt, some dark invert sugar syrup for flavor, and just enough hops to balance it all out.”
For more from Karnowski on making invert syrups at home or in the brewery, see Zebulon’s Mike Karnowski Shares Four Ways to Make Invert Sugar.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.033
FG: 1.005
IBUs: 25
ABV: 3.7%
“Twenty years earlier, this would’ve been twice as strong, but World War I devastated British beer,” says Mike Karnowski, cofounder and brewer at Zebulon Artisan Ales. “Government regulations, taxes, and ingredient shortages had all taken their toll. Mild took much of the blow and ended up as, basically, ‘the cheapest beer on tap.’”
He adds: “This would be a silly choice for a two-ounce pour in a flight. This is a beer to be consumed in large amounts. It would be typical to have five to six pints over the course of an evening, playing darts or cards with friends at the pub.
“No one was overthinking mild ale—it was basically a cheap amber ale with some caramel notes and a touch of hops. The ingredients were simple: mild ale malt, some dark invert sugar syrup for flavor, and just enough hops to balance it all out.”
For more from Karnowski on making invert syrups at home or in the brewery, see Zebulon’s Mike Karnowski Shares Four Ways to Make Invert Sugar.
ALL-GRAIN
Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.033
FG: 1.005
IBUs: 25
ABV: 3.7%
[PAYWALL]
MALT/GRAIN BILL
4 lb (1.8 kg) pale ale malt
12 oz (340 g) flaked maize
HOPS & ADDITIONS SCHEDULE
1.1 lb (500 g) homemade invert syrup No. 3 at 60 minutes
1.4 oz (40 g) Fuggles at 60 minutes [25 IBUs]
YEAST
Wyeast 1318 London Ale III, Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale, or other flavorful British ale yeast
DIRECTIONS
Mill the malt, mix in the flaked maize, and mash at 150–152°F (66–67°C) for 45 minutes. Recirculate until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge and top up as needed to get about 6 gallons (23 liters) of wort, depending on your evaporation rate. Bring to a boil, add the syrup and hops, and boil for 60 minutes. Chill to about 64°F (18°C), aerate, and pitch the yeast. Ferment at ambient temperatures as high as 74°F (23°C) until fermentation is complete and gravity has stabilized, then crash, package, and carbonate to about 1.8–2 volumes of CO2. (Want to serve it on cask? See Brewing and Conditioning Cask Ale at Home, Simplified.)
BREWER’S NOTES
Malt: Mild ale malt was usually the cheapest malt and a bit darker than the finest pale ale malt. I recommend using whatever English pale malt you can get your hands on—don’t overthink it.
Adjuncts: The invert syrup is essential to the style. It gives the amber color and fruity caramel flavors. If you don’t want to be bothered making your own, substituting some Belgian D-90 syrup is not terribly blasphemous. The flaked maize is typical of the style, but substitute pale malt if you must.
Hops: Use anything that’s not modern—Fuggles, Goldings, Willamette—just nothing tropical or citrusy.
